Twice a Wish (GODDESS ISLES Book 2)

by Pepper Winters

  I froze as his voice wobbled without warning.

  He smiled even as tears wetted his eyes. “Fuck.” Swiping away his grief, he added, “Sorry, I don’t know why the hell talking about her is affecting me so much. It’s been years but…after last night…it reminded me just how much I miss female company. How much I miss being touched and touching someone. How much I miss looking after someone.”

  I flinched as he strode toward me and took my hand.

  I wanted to pull away, but the imploring look on his face made me pause. He didn’t strike me as evil or that I was at risk of being made to sleep with him again while alone on this sandy laneway. He honestly looked lost. Lost, alone, and terribly sad.

  “Do you judge me for my fantasy?” His eyes tightened. “That you were in the role of my son’s girlfriend?”

  I wriggled my fingers in his, trying to get away. I couldn’t exactly tell the truth, but I wouldn’t lie, either. Then again, why couldn’t I tell him the truth? Hopefully, he was leaving tonight, and we’d never see each other again.

  Pinning him with a cool stare, I said, “Yes, I judge you. Why have such a fantasy if it’s not based on truth? Why fantasise about your son’s girlfriend? If you miss your wife like you say, then why not fantasise about her?”

  He sighed, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. Unlike when Sully touched me, I had no sizzle, no spark. Just the annoying stroking of a man who carried far more baggage than his happy-go-lucky veneer suggested. He needed a therapist, not a goddess.

  “I think about my wife constantly.” He shrugged. “But I don’t think about her when she died. I remember her how she was when we first met. Young. Vulnerable. Trusting and full of unconditional affection. Unfortunately…my daughter-in-law looks very similar to my wife… with the same blind devotion.”

  “Devotion to your son. Not you.”

  “I’m aware of that.”

  “It’s abhorrent to lust after your son’s partner.” My nose wrinkled. “What sort of father does that make you?

  “A bad one.” He flinched. “I’m aware it’s a disgusting confession. But you have to understand, my son met his girlfriend on the two-year anniversary of my wife’s death. When he brought her around, I almost fell to my knees thinking my Jody had been reincarnated in her. Watching them fall in love, seeing how much they cared for each other, being forced to realise that I would never have that with my wife again…it…” He sighed again. “It scrambled me a little. I witnessed them falling in love and went along for the ride. I fell for my daughter-in-law, not because I loved her exactly, but because I loved what she would give my son. What a relationship meant. How damn lucky they were to have each other. How much I missed that bond.”

  Ever so slowly, I extracted my hand from his control. “Look, I’m sorry you’re hurting, but you can find another to love. Losing someone to death is tragic, but you need to allow yourself to heal.” I blinked, surprised that such compassion had risen, despite my reservations of this whole interaction. “And I suggest you keep such unacceptable desires hidden.”

  My stomach growled, reminding me I needed to eat. I needed to seek out the other goddesses and try to find a way to become one of them so Sully left me the hell alone in the future.

  Roy Slater rolled his shoulders and nodded sadly. “I know. And I have tried, believe me.” He licked his lips. “I’ve dated. I’ve done the online thing and even let a few friends set me up, but…” He chuckled low. “All women my age either have their own heartache, are too independent, or just want me for my money.” His gaze rose, once again snaring mine. “I want a girl I can dote on. Someone young who needs me, not just wants me. I’m a wealthy man, and I want to spend that wealth making her happy. It would…fulfil me and stop me being so empty.”

  I swallowed, searching for a reply. “I’m, eh…I’m sure you’ll find such a person.”

  “I did.” He arched his chin. “I found you.”

  “What?” I coughed. “No, no. You found a fantasy. That’s what this whole island is. An illusion.”

  He shook his head. “You’re not. You’re special. You’re different.”

  How often had I thought those words about Sully? How sometimes, I thought he felt the same way about me. Different meant ‘You stand out to me over all the others.’ Special meant ‘You could be what I’m looking for’.

  Both those words did not relate at all to this situation with Roy Slater.

  Ugh.

  I didn’t know being a whore also came with being a counsellor too. I wanted to leave. I stepped away to do so, but Roy murmured, “I’m in love with you. I know that’s crazy to say after just one night, but the moment I saw you get off that helicopter with Sinclair, I knew you were it for me. I want…I want to take you home with me. I want—”

  “Wait.” I laughed.

  I couldn’t help it.

  “You want to take me home?” I rolled my eyes. How ludicrous. How absolutely fucking crazy. Truth suddenly overflowed and exploded from my mouth. “You know I already have a home, right? A home that I was stolen from, family who probably think I’m dead. Do you know Sully doesn’t hire us but buys us to pleasure you? Why do you think I want to go home with you, when all I want to do is go back to where I belong?”

  Roy stiffened. “I’m sorry if I said the wrong thing.”

  He didn’t act as if hearing of my captivity was news. He didn’t respond like a normal man should after hearing a woman was trapped and used against their will. His sob story of missing his wife, of wanting a replacement to dote on…it wasn’t sweet, it was sickening.

  He wanted a toy to play with, a mannequin to dress up, and a blow-up doll to fuck.

  Well, fuck that.

  I’m done.

  “Coming to this island was the wrong thing,” I snapped. “Thinking you can buy me like he did? The worst possible thing.” Storming up the pathway, I shuddered as his voice followed me.

  “I love you, Jinx. I do. I’m not lying. I love you, and I’m going to find a way for us to be together.”

  I broke into a run.

  Skittles fluttered from the undergrowth, her little wings snapping and zipping her through the air beside me.

  She sensed my turmoil. She collided with the eddies of my distress, sorrow, and rage.

  But she never left me.

  And together, we flew as far away from men as we could.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “I’LL GIVE YOU A million.”

  “Excuse me?” I looked up from my morning coffee, sitting on the veranda overlooking the guests mingling below.

  Roy Slater stood in front of my table in the exact spot where Eleanor had launched into me with all her bottled hate and disgust two weeks ago. It’d only been our second official meeting, but even then, I knew she was different…special.

  That I had met my match and would severely fucking pay.

  Placing my iPad next to my coffee that held a screen full of medical text on a new Alzheimer drug that Peter Beck wanted to test on a trial of fifty willing and paid human guinea pigs, I studied Roy Slater.

  He was due to fly off my island tomorrow morning. All his bills were settled. His signed NDA locked in my safe with copies lodged with my lawyer. He’d come to paradise, slept with a goddess, and now would return to his humdrum life and forever remember the experience that I’d given him.

  I wanted to fucking kill him.

  But…I wouldn’t.

  Because that would be bad for business.

  He ran a hand through his hair, looking dishevelled and rushed. A far sight from the man I’d met on the beach who’d negotiated for Eleanor’s company. “A million.”

  I cocked my head, my silver aviators protecting my eyes from the tropical sun. The sun had reached a scorching thirty-eight degrees centigrade today, ensuring I wore a cream linen suit, rather than dark cashmere. Even with a white shirt and no tie, I still fought my body’s urge to sweat.

  After work, I planned to vanish into the sea for the rest o
f the afternoon. To allow the ocean to wash away my heat and my constantly consuming hunger for Eleanor.

  I could still taste her.

  Her pussy on my tongue. Her release in my mouth.

  Fuck.

  I’d woken with my hand fisting my cock this morning and cum all over my stomach. Denying myself while awake ensured I’d started dreaming of her at night. Even with distance between us, I was slipping. Falling in ways I couldn’t fucking permit.

  “A million for what precisely?” I asked softly, smoothing my lapel. A Hawk diamond flashed in my cufflinks.

  I narrowed my eyes. Had Roy Slater bought her a diamond? Would Jinx earn another precious stone? If each guest fell in love with her, she’d have a fortune by the time I let her go.

  Goddammit.

  That thought blew another hole in my chest.

  My hands itched to grab the spoon by my coffee to scoop out his eyes. To remove all his memories of the girl who belonged to me in every fucking way.

  “For Jinx.” He swallowed hard. “I want to…eh, buy her. To request a trade.”

  I stiffened in my chair. “A trade?”

  “Cash for your goddess.” He nodded. “I give you my word I’ll look after her. I’ll respect her. I would never share her, and she’d be given a life fit for any princess.” His voice lowered with need. “I want to look after her. To love her.”

  Ah, Christ.

  Men were so goddamn predictable.

  This wasn’t the first time a guest had asked to take a girl home, and I’m sure it wouldn't be the last. I never said yes. Ever. I could never be sure of the girl’s well-being or trust the word of a gentleman who came to my shores.

  But…

  Ever since standing over Eleanor while she slept, I’d done my best to fix my problem. I wanted her gone but didn’t necessarily know how. If I just let her go…she could tell anyone about my little operation here. If I killed her, she’d haunt me for the rest of my fucking days.

  But…if I sold her…

  My heart crashed and collided with my ribs, but I yanked hard on its leash, making it cower in the corner.

  Something had to be done.

  I couldn’t keep this up.

  I couldn’t keep avoiding her.

  I couldn’t pretend she didn’t exist or ignore that something bound us together.

  The only way to be free of her awful curse would be to get her off my island.

  For good.

  And a solution had just fallen serendipitously into my lap.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AFTER Roy Slater accosted me on the path, I received a summons.

  For a full rotation of earth, I’d existed in a heightened sense of fear. Last night, I’d tried to find Jupiter, Calico, and Neptune to eat dinner with them but only found an empty dining room. Jealousy wasn’t there, either, and I’d returned to eat the food waiting on my deck, then sat up for most of the night watching the moon track its way through stars.

  This morning, I’d chosen to say in my villa. I didn’t want to run into Roy Slater again, or any other man for that matter. My ability to converse had been well and truly stripped away.

  Breakfast had been delivered by a usual pretty staff member, a few new clothes arrived to replace the ones I’d lost, and I tried to lose myself in a book loaded on an e-reader that I’d found in the bedside drawer.

  It didn’t work.

  My eyes skimmed words, but my brain remained firmly fixated on Sully. On what he was doing, why hadn’t he come to check on me, how could I stop the complex mix of dislike and desire.

  So when the summons came at twilight, I was almost glad.

  I was ready to face anything if it meant it gave me something other than him to focus on. Something to endure rather than being forced to relax on a perfect island with unlimited delicious food and every wish I ever wanted.

  It was the blissful existence between serving in Euphoria that ruined me. How could I lay on a lounger, dressed in expensive bikinis, eating ripe organic fruit, and reading a simple romance like I was on holiday, when none of that daydream was real? How could I forget that I paid for such luxury with my body?

  Re-reading the note that Arbi had personally delivered, goosebumps darted down my spine.

  Come to my office at ten a.m.

  Such a simple sentence.

  A collection of words that gave nothing away to Sully’s intentions or requirements of our meeting. So why did utmost dread slip like cyanide through my veins? Why did Roy Slater come to mind and his parting words that’d chased me down the path echo like a drumbeat for an execution?

  “I love you, and I’m going to find a way for us to be together.”

  My legs gave out, crumpling me to the floor.

  No.

  I scrunched up the note, tighter and tighter, then threw it into the corner of the room. It bounced off the driftwood couch, smashing into a potted fern. Skittles chirped indignantly from her chosen spot on the side table lamp. She’d taken up residency on the shade, her daily preening interrupted by my terror.

  An awful premonition filled me.

  Could Roy Slater have asked to claim me? Had he approached Sully with an offer he couldn’t refuse?

  But he wouldn’t…would he?

  He won’t sell me.

  Why would Sully sell something that he’d only just bought? Something that was still new and valuable to his empire?

  I buried my face in my hands, unable to lie. Skittles winged her way to perch on my shoulder, tweeting worriedly into my ear.

  I couldn’t respond, too frozen with horror.

  He’ll sell you to be rid of a problem.

  To be rid of the mess between you.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  I hated taking elixir. I hated serving in Euphoria. I hated having my own body and mind work against me.

  But at least, I could trust in my boundaries. I had a friend in Jealousy. I had shelter and food and clothes.

  I have a parrot who chose me for her own.

  The thought of having all that stripped away? Of being given to another man who might not grant the same level of care? Of being taken to another country? Of being nothing more than a possession, bouncing from master to dictator?

  I…I can’t.

  A silent sob swelled in my lungs, suffocating me.

  God, why didn’t I try harder to escape?

  Why did I step out onto the helipad when Sully flew above me?

  Needing fresh air, I bolted to my feet and flew out of the villa. Skittles chased me, squawking with fear over our potential separation.

  I didn’t stop running until the warm tide licked at my ankles and the sun slipped in a fiery crimson blaze into the sea.

  I wedged a fist in my stomach as the last dregs of sunlight faded, seeming so final, so resolute.

  A sunset on my time here.

  * * * * *

  Nine forty-five a.m.

  I studied myself in the mirror.

  My skin held a cast of ghostly white with foreboding, my eyes rested in shadows from lack of sleep, and my pulse pounded visibly in my neck from panic.

  As a girl who’d barely slept, whose own life didn’t belong to her, whose future was so uncertain, I was a mess.

  But for a goddess who’d been summoned before her owner, I was every bit a bewitching immortal.

  It’d taken me since dawn to perfect the mirage.

  Sully traded in chimera mockery and deception, well…I had learned from the master. I might not have elixirs and sensory deceptors, but I did have determination and the undying need not to be sold.

  If I left this island.

  When I leave this island…

  I would be going home. Not to someone else’s bed.

  Skittles sat quietly on the vanity, nestled in the cotton buds that I’d strewn across the surface in my haste to complete my fallacy.

  I didn’t recognise the girl staring back at me. I’d lost the ability to call myself Eleanor Grac
e because that was a human name…and today, I was no longer human.

  I was as myth-like as I could get without sprouting angel wings.

  My hair was loose. Washed with coconut and kaduka plum, rinsed in icy water to bring ethereal shine to each and every strand. Sepia and bronze, mahogany and henna, the length and glossiness hung in a heavy veil down my back. Frangipani flowers decorated the length, randomly placed so I looked as if I’d been birthed by the very island that Sully adored.

  My paleness had been hidden with finely applied make-up. I’d never been talented with a brush or pigments before, but I’d kept washing and reapplying until I’d achieved an otherworldly look.

  Dewy lips, smoky eyes, harsh cheekbones, and perfect glowing skin, even my breasts had been amplified—a lash of bronzer down my cleavage to highlight their fullness.

  But it was the dress that turned me from normal to extraordinary.

  A gown I’d found in the wardrobe, tucked in a zipped bag in the shadows.

  Champagne glitter and fawn crystal.

  Straps kissed my shoulders, breaking into a V down my chest to swoop low between my breasts. Intricate panels of jewels hugged my belly and hips, before hanging heavy and full of glamour to the floor. It moulded to me like a second skin, granting the illusion that my own flesh had been inlaid with caramel gemstones and flawless diamonds.

  I’d never worn something so glitzy, nor felt quite so unlike myself.

  Nine fifty a.m.

  Ten minutes before I would come face to face with Sullivan Sinclair.

  Ten minutes before I strode into battle wearing an amour destined to break thy enemy.

  This dress wasn’t for Roy Slater.

  This masquerade wasn’t for Sully Sinclair.

  The glowing goddess who stared back in the mirror was for me.

  My parting gift to men who thought I could be demeaned with a price tag.

  If Roy wanted to buy me and Sully wanted to sell me…then so be it.

  But I would make both men see just how much I was worth.

  I would make them understand that money was worthless.

  That I was priceless.